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Mars 2020/Perseverance Rover Is Designed to Better Understand the Geology of Mars and Seek • Gather Rock and Soil Samples That Could Be Signs of Ancient Life

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration Mars 2020/Perseverance Over the past two decades, missions flown technology to benefit future robotic and human by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program have exploration of Mars. shown us that Mars was once very different from the cold, dry planet it is today. Evidence Key Objectives discovered by landed and orbital missions point • Explore a geologically diverse landing site to wet conditions billions of years ago. These environments lasted long enough to potentially • Assess ancient habitability support the development of microbial life. • Seek signs of ancient life, particularly in special rocks known to preserve signs of life over time The Mars 2020/Perseverance rover is designed to better understand the geology of Mars and seek • Gather rock and soil samples that could be signs of ancient life. The mission will collect and returned to Earth by a future NASA mission store a set of rock and soil samples that could be • Demonstrate technology for future robotic and returned to Earth in the future. It will also test new human exploration Mission Timeline Key Hardware • Launch in July-August 2020 from Cape Perseverance will carry seven instruments to Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida conduct unprecedented science and test new • Launching on a ULA Atlas 541 procured under technology on the Red Planet. They are: NASA’s Launch Services Program • Mastcam-Z, an advanced camera system with • Land on Mars on February 18, 2021 at the panoramic and stereoscopic imaging capability site of an ancient river delta in a lake that once with the ability to zoom. The instrument also filled Jezero Crater will determine mineralogy of the Martian surface and assist with rover operations. The principal • Spend at least one Mars year (two Earth years) investigator is James Bell, Arizona State exploring the landing site region University in Tempe. • SuperCam, an instrument that can provide imaging, Rover Size and Dimensions chemical composition analysis, and mineralogy at a distance. The principal investigator is Roger Wiens, Los Perseverance’s body and other major hardware (such as the Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico. cruise stage, descent stage, and aeroshell/heat shield) build This instrument also has a significant contribution from the upon the success of NASA’s Curiosity rover and include many Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, Institut de Recherche heritage components. The car-sized Perseverance rover has en Astrophysique et Planétologie (CNES/IRAP), France. roughly the same dimensions as Curiosity: it’s about 10 feet long (not including the arm), 9 feet wide, and 7 feet tall (about • Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), an 3 meters long, 2.7 meters wide, and 2.2 meters tall). But at X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and high-resolution 2,260 pounds (1,025 kilograms), Perseverance is about 278 imager to map the fine-scale elemental composition of pounds (126 kilograms) heavier than Curiosity. Martian surface materials. PIXL will provide capabilities that permit more detailed detection and analysis of chemical elements than ever before. The principal investigator is Abigail Allwood, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. • Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC), a spectrometer that will provide fine-scale imaging and uses an ultraviolet (UV) laser to map mineralogy and organic compounds. SHERLOC will be the first UV Raman spectrometer to fly to the surface of Mars and will provide complementary measurements with other instruments in the payload. SHERLOC includes a high-resolution color camera for microscopic imaging of Mars’ surface. The principal investigator is Luther Beegle, JPL. Technology • The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment Perseverance will also test new technology for future robotic (MOXIE), a technology demonstration that will produce and human missions to the Red Planet. That includes oxygen from Martian atmospheric carbon dioxide. If an autopilot for avoiding hazards called Terrain Relative successful, MOXIE’s technology could be used by future Navigation and a set of sensors for gathering data during the astronauts on Mars to burn rocket fuel for returning landing (Mars Entry, Descent and Landing Instrumentation 2, to Earth. The principal investigator is Michael Hecht, or MEDLI2). A new autonomous navigation system will allow Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, the rover to drive faster in challenging terrain. Massachusetts. As with Curiosity, Perseverance’s baseline power system • Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA), a set of is a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator sensors that will provide measurements of temperature, (MMRTG) provided by the U.S. Department of Energy. It uses wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity, and the heat from the natural decay of plutonium-238 to generate dust size and shape. The principal investigator is Jose electricity. Rodriguez-Manfredi, Centro de Astrobiología, Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aeroespacial, Spain. Program Management • The Radar Imager for Mars’ Subsurface Experiment The Mars 2020 Project is managed for NASA’s Science (RIMFAX), a ground-penetrating radar that will provide Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C., by the Jet Propulsion centimeter-scale resolution of the geologic structure of Laboratory (JPL), a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California. the subsurface. The principal investigator is Svein-Erik Hamran, the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, At NASA Headquarters, George Tahu is the Mars 2020 Norway. program executive and Mitchell Schulte is program scientist. At JPL, John McNamee is the Mars 2020 project manager and Ken Farley of Caltech is project scientist. For more information about the Mars 2020 mission and NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, visit: mars.nasa.gov/mars2020 www.nasa.gov March 2020 NASA Facts.
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